Shattered Light
by Akira Himejima
Summary: What if Asuna didn't make it through the end of the Aincrad arc? What would Kirito do then? A retelling of Phantom Bullet with some different strings attached. [FINALLY WRITING THIS AGAIN! But will be published as a separate story. For statistics reasons. Ch 1 will be uploaded by the end of May 2016.] -Akira {Also looking for betas! Anybody wanna help create feels?}
1. A Curtain Rises, A Castle Falls

"I'm sorry. Goodbye."

Only three words, but each one struck harder than anything Heathcliff could've thrown at him. Kirito held Asuna's semi-translucent body in his arms, tears streaming down his face. Asuna jumped in the way of Heathcliff's final blow and as result, she took the brunt of the attack. Unfortunately, her health wasn't fully recovered, and the attack was more than before enough to take out the rest of her HP. According to the parameters set by Healthcliff, Kayaba Akihiko, once your health bar was depleted, your in-game avatar would be erased from the cardinal system's database, and a high frequency scan would be sent into your brain, killing you instantly. Thus, Kirito couldn't do anything but watch as his first and only love began to disappear in his on arms.

"P-please.. Don't leave.. me. Asuna..."

But it was too late. Before he could even think, her digital self shattered into thousands of glimmering polygons. Everyone, including Kirito, had seen this sight many times before now, but even though in each instance someone in the real world lost their life, this particular one put that much more dread into everybody's hearts. Kirito, who could do nothing but fall to his knees remembered that day, over a year ago now, when the same thing happened to him.

"So this is how it felt Keita," he said to himself in between sobs, "This is what I did to you. I hope you can forgive me."

"Mm. That was, unexpected."

Heathcliff himself, said this. Calmly sheathing his sword into his shield's built-in scabbard. His face bore no emotion as he stared down at the black swordsman on the floor below him. He took a look around at the other players, seeing their disgust and faces of betrayal, a smirk made it's way on his face as he spoke once more.

"The Black Swordsman tearing his way to the Tyrant King's doorstep on a quest to avenge his fallen love, with an army of men and women at his back. It'll make for one good story; I only hope you'll all be ready when the time comes."

Kirito immediately looked up at the avatar representation of Kayaba Akihiko before him, his sadness being replaced by rage. "No." he growled as he saw him begin to walk away.

"Hm?"

"I'll.. I'll kill you first!"

Without a single warning, he dashed forward while picking up the weapon that laid by his feet, Asuna's Lambent Light. Not even another moment later, more than half of the blade was plunged into Heathcliff's chest, completely ignoring his armor. Kirito wrenched the blade while it was still inside, turning it so that it was facing the other way, before ripping it out. Immediately, he began to thrust multiple times, each so fast that the sword was just a simple blur. Soon enough, he had successfully drained the remaining third of Heathcliff's health bar, while hanging on to the tiny morsel that he had remaining.

A genuinely happy smile came across the knight's face, as he thought to himself in his last few moments, _So that's what it's like to have someone to fight for. _Then, the body of Heathcliff shattered into its thousands of polygons, as the world around Kirito began to fade into a brilliant light.

* * *

The next thing Kirito saw was the yellow/orange sky that you'd only see as the sun was setting on the horizon. It had such a magnificent feel to it, but something didn't feel quite right. He inspected his clothes only to note that he was still in his blackened out attire. Looking around, he noticed that he was standing on the air.

"Still in the game, but, where am I? Is this an invisible platform or something"

To his left he could hear the cracking of stone and metal, but it was distant, almost as if he were kilometers away from it. He glanced over, only to see the floating castle of Aincrad below him, falling into pieces. Each piece falling, on by one, from the bottom up.

"Don't worry, as per the game's final directive coding, everybody's already been logged out. Which means it's just you and me left."

He didn't even break his line of sight with the dying castle, and spoke to the voice behind him.

"If everyone's supposed to log out, why am I still here?"

"I thought the winner of the game would like to see the end credits before he went back to the real world." The voice replied.

"You mean, it's really over?" Kirito stopped, as a thought crossed his mind. "She only had to live for another minute.."

"Ah. That." Kayaba said as he walked up to the now disarmed swordsman, "I paralyzed everybody to make sure something like that wouldn't happen. I assure you, I didn't wish for things to be that way. But either way, I'm truly sorry."

He didn't respond, and instead continued to stare off at Aincrad as he painfully watched Floor 22 fall from the sky.

"I know I don't have the right to ask, but I do have a favor of you, you can also consider this your prize."

Kirito turned to face Kayaba, and looked at him curiously, lessening his cold attitude.

"A prize?"

"Like I said, it's more of a favor. Something I'd like you to do for me, especially since it's worth far more than anything else I could give you."

"What do you want then?"

"I want you to take care of this."

With a gesture of his hand, a golden orb began to materialize into the shape of an egg as it lowered itself into his palm. It gave of a magnificent glow as it slowly revovled in place.

"This is called the World Seed. It has everything you need to make a new VRMMO. You can use it for yourself, you can give it to anybody, or everybody. You can even simply delete it if you want. But, if there's any part of you that still loves this world, then you should keep it."

The egg transferred itself from Kayaba's hand to Kirito's, it's beautiful glow even stayed up until it disappeared and saved itself onto Kirito's NerveGear.

They both looked back at the castle, which was now breaking down the 50th floor, silently watching, as if almost mesmerized by it.

"I spent years of my life, creating and building this place from the ground up. Only to have it destroy itself in the end."

"Why did you do all of this? Make this a death game?" Kirito asked.

"There really isn't an easy answer for that." The man replied, "All I can remember is that when I was little, I always dreamed about a castle in the sky, a place that all of our imaginations can run wild. I guess in the end, I wanted to create a new life. To live in a world not bound by the limits of the real world."

"And it cost the lives of over four thousand people."

He simply stood there, his eyes closed, as if accepting that he had no reason for it all. Suddenly he opened them again, and turned to look at Kirito. He then asked him a question.

"Perhaps I don't have a reason, but you know what I've discovered these past two years?"

Kirito once again brought his attention to Kayaba, who at this point was beginning to become less and less of an enemy, and more of a mentor.

"What's that?"

"The only difference between this world and the real one is the amount of information."

He immediately glanced back at the castle, noting that it was now on Floor 75.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Give it time.. Hm?" Kayaba widened his eyes as if he realized something important. "I suppose this is where we part ways, Kirito."

Kayaba started walking off, slowly fading as if the game was deconstructing him bit by bit.

"W-Wait!"

"Hm?"

"What do I do about Asuna?"

"Ah, yes. Her physical body is dead due to the waves sent into her brain upon death. I'm sorry not even I can bring her back."

Sorrow began to fill his heart once again.

"However-"

"However!?"

"I'm sure you'll see her again. In the virtual world, anything is possible."

With those last words, what seemed like a ghost of Kayaba Akihiko vanished completely, leaving the lone Black Swordsman to watch the palace on top of the castle broke into a dozen pieces, as it fell from the sky. He stared off into the never-ending sunset, with his hand covering his heart. As the empty sky before him, started to fade away.

* * *

_**A/N (Revised Nov. 14th.): **For those of you that have already read this part, you know I had a whole spiel here, asking for support with the wonder if this was a story even worth working on. Due to an overwhelming amount of Views, Follows, Favorites. I decided to continue on with the story. And it's all thanks to you guys! So I decided to end this chapter by formerly welcoming aboard my train. If you like this story, don't be afraid to favorite it! Also I love reviews, it's always nice to hear from fans just like me, what they think of what I spend my spare time doing. All of that being said, I can't wait to see where this train stops. Enjoy the ride._

_-AK_


	2. The Lost Swordsman

The date is November 8, 2024, and in such a rapidly growing society, something, anything could happen and some form of media would be there to cover it. Yet on this day, there was only one story that was being covered; a story that had been in progress for the past two years. If it were like a story book, today would have been the final chapter, "The Survivors are Waking Up."

Tens of thousands of people across Japan, even in other countries flocked to their computers and television screens as they watched the videos being released from the hospitals were the patients were kept. Just like that, the remaining six thousand players of the death game Sword Art Online had returned just like that. All of the vigilance, hopes, and prayers of the bystanders had finally paid off; it was over.

There was one group that remained even more vigilant than the most concerned family members, an organization that was formed in the beginning of the crisis called, "The SAO Incident Victims Rescue Force." It was mostly made of volunteers, who just a few days after launch helped to move the ten thousand players into hospitals, so that they're physical bodies wouldn't die out before they even had a chance to get out, as the news that the game had to be cleared was relayed quite quickly to everyone. However, for some unexplained reason, the group was disbanded three months into the crisis, with the jurisdiction handed over to The Ministry of Internal Affairs. Once the torch was passed, the members of the ministry sat and watched, waiting for the day.

Two years and one day later, word immediately reached their offices, detailing what was happening, and that the game had been beaten. They were able to track the positions of the players, so they managed a vague glimpse at what was going on. Looking over the final moments of SAO, there was a massive bewilderment among ministry; for not only had Sword Art Online been cleared, but it had been cleared twenty-five floors early.

Due to the server's privacy and security settings, no one was able to see what actually happened in the boss room of Floor 75, they were only able to know that there was a boss raid, and then five minutes later, it was over. But upon closer inspection, there appeared to have been a duel among two players. Their avatars' names read, "Heathcliff" and "Kirito." Heathcliff's dot had disappeared just before the server began to purge itself, which could've only meant one thing, that this "Kirito" was the reason it all ended so abruptly.

"Interesting," he said to himself, leaning closer to the computer screen in his office, "Kirito, huh? It says here your real name is... Kazuto Kirigaya."

He fixed his glasses and leaned back in his chair, after which a smile caressed his face.

"It looks like I'll be paying Mr. Kirigaya a visit."

* * *

Kazuto Kirigaya sat upright in his hospital bed, astonishment in his eyes at the sight of the two standing in the doorway. He was flabbergasted, but regardless, he managed to get his words out.

"Mom? Sugu?"

"Brother!" Suguha Kirigaya shouted out. Her eyes were full of tears of joy, as she ran up to his bedside and wrapped her arms around his bony shoulders. Since Kazuto hadn't been able to use his body in the past two years, it felt as if she was about to snap him in two, but he didn't mind too much, though it would've been nice if he had the strength to hug back. Suguha cried into her brother's chest, sniffling between each burst, each and every one radiated the happiness within her.

"It's good to see you again Sugu, I missed you both a lot." Kazuto said calmly. He lifted his frail arm and managed to put a hand on Suguha's shoulder. Immediately, it was as if a memory rewinded in his head, a moment like this had happened to him before, with someone just as important to him. That's when it hit him. _That's right__, I'm Kazuto again. __But I never learned her name.._

"Eh, is something wrong Kazuto?" Suguha asked, noticing that he was in thought.

"Ah! Nothing, I was just reflecting on my time in the game. I spent a long time in there, after all."

Suguha unwrapped her arms from her brother's shoulders. She didn't seem to be fond of him talking about SAO so suddenly, especially when she hadn't been in the room for more than two minutes.

"You're finally back, and the first thing you do is talk about what was holding onto your life by a thread?" She was annoyed, which considering how the circumstances were for her. She had a point. He couldn't possibly begin to think of how many times she had visited him in the hospital room, praying that he'd wake up soon, scared to death that she might get a call any second that told her that he died. It would've been even worse if the survivor count was being covered by the media the entire time, which luckily it wasn't.

Ten thousand people had played the game, total, and 3,853 of those people perished, 2,000 of which were in the first month. That meant the game had a mortality rate of near 40%, a number much too high to be comfortable in the hopes that a loved one would survive. To make matters worse, the eight hundred some beta testers that returned for the full game had a mortality rate of around 75%. The numbers, no matter how you looked, were terrifying. But to the players of SAO, the numbers had a deeper meaning, because they actually watched as the player count dropped. Only able to observe as their friends shattered into thousands of digital data in front of them.

"Sorry, Sugu." Kazuto said, trying to let off a playful grin. "I guess I'll need to adjust some more to the fact that I'm not in the game anymore." He switched his attention to his mother, Midori Kirigaya, and asked her a fairly obvious question.

"Do you have any idea when they'll let me out of here?"

Midori grinned, as if not surprised in his question at all, "Still the same stubborn boy, eh? Just waking up and you already want to leave. Heheh. I asked the nurse about you before we came to the door, and she said you should be ready to check out in a couple more days, given your rate of recovery after only a day. But she also mentioned that you'll be in therapy for a few months until we can get you back to the way you were before this all started."

"That's good news then," he replied, as he glanced down at Suguha quietly analyzing his face, "Uh.. Sugu? What are you doing?"

"She's right." Suguha added, "You're going to be there for good, long time. I mean, you're pratically a walking skeleton right now!"

"Yeah.. Thanks for that observation." Kazuto retorted, his fact dropping into an unimpressed glare. He could definitely tell he was back, just through that simple exchange.

Suguha and Midori stayed well after the pre-winter sun disappeared from the sky. They told Kazuto what was going on in both of their lives as well as telling him about the various news stories he missed. While they were there, the hospital nurse showed up with his dinner, and Midori started asking questions about how they'll be paying the bill, which was undoubtedly incredibly high. Luckily for them, The Ministry of Internal Affairs managed to get a lot of government funding, and all of the remaining players medical bills were more than sliced in half. What wouldn't be mentioned, however, was the main reason the bills could be reduced so much, which was due to the deaths of a sizable portion of the players.

Right before they left, Suguha left Kazuto a sandwich that she quickly went down to get from a vending machine downstairs, telling him that 'He needed all the nourishment he could get.' Then, her and Midori went over to close the curtains, said their goodbyes, and walked out the door into the hallway, letting it slide shut behind them. Leaving Kazuto alone in the hospital room.

Kazuto leaned back a bit in his bed and took a deep breath while staring off at the white wall of the hospital, with a perplexed look. _I __know I __missed them __a lot__, but it feels like I didn't miss them __that much at all. __Why? _He figured he'd miss them more than anything, especially because they were his family. When he thought about it, maybe it was because he had already known the truth about them. It was also the same reason that drove him to online gaming, and ultimately, Sword Art Online.

The truth was that Kazuto's real parents died in a car wreck, but at the time he was less than a year old, so he had no recollection of it. His mother's sister Midori decided to take it upon herself and her husband Minetake to raise Kazuto as their own, making sure not to tell him unless he asked. Just around a year later, they had a child of their own blood which they name Suguha. They grew up together, and didn't know any different, so Midori acted as if there was nothing different about their heritage. When Kazuto was six, he took a liking to computers like his Midori had, and he started building one himself. However, what she didn't expect was him managing to look up his family's record when he was ten. Without anyone knowing, Kazuto found out about the fate of his real parents, and that Minetake, Midori, and even Suguha weren't his real family.

Since then, he felt like an alien to them, always watching his now cousin out in the yard practicing Kendo, never feeling like he fit in at the dinner table. Everything was different to him now. He decided that he needed a way to escape the harsh reality of things. He then picked up on MMOs and became more and more distant from them by the day. It wasn't until he was trapped in Sword Art Online, when his own life was at stake, did he realize the extent of his mistake.

It seemed like a farfetched idea, because even if they weren't actually his family, he still cared for them, and they still treated him just the same. After two years forced to play a game of death, he must've missed them much more than he actually did; rationally, it didn't make sense. However, rationality doesn't mean anything to a heart that's lost so much.

"Asuna." Kirito squeezed out. He said it as if he felt stupid for even forgetting that name for a minute. "It's not that I don't miss them, I just miss her more."

He could feel a twist near his lungs, which he responded by grabbing at the area where his heart was. His fingers acted almost as if he was about to tear his heart out, as his eyes began to flow like a waterfall. Suddenly, all of the logic in his head forced him to try and repress the feeling that was gnawing at him. Sadly, his thoughts were determined to battle each other.

_You've just returned, be happy. It's what Asuna would've wanted._

_I cared for her more than anything! I promised her I'd return her to the real world! How will I ever forgive myself? I should've died on that floor, not her! _

_But I saved the lives of thousands, I should be happy, shouldn't I? _

_But I can't be happy, not without her in my life._

He opened his eyes and looked down into his open palm, watching droplets of tears plop one by one on it's surface.

Kazuto knew that if the nurse saw him like this, she'd just ask what was wrong until he finally told her. Though, even if he wanted to share, who would believe that his wife that he met in the game had died? To anyone else, this was just an after effect of the prolonged use of the NerveGear. His only option was to wipe his tears and pretend it didn't happen. It was better this way anyway, for the moment at least. He used his bony hands that looked like skin wrapped around mere stick to take the tears off of his eyelids. Afterwards, he used to lighter sheet of the blankets to dry off the rest of his eyes; though they were still red, and his cheeks were still somewhat puffy, it would pass in a minute or so. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't be able to get that minute in before someone entered the room once again.

It was the nurse, clad in a set of scrubs that was the same shade of pale blue as his hospital gown. She stood at the doorway with a clipboard in her hands, so he figured she was making a checkup round; but what she said both surprised and concerned him.

"Mr. Kirigaya, there's a gentleman here to see you."

* * *

_***A/N: **All I can say is that's it's been a productive day. But here it is! A new chapter! (One day after I posted the first one!) To be fair, I did write the rough draft for the first chapter last week, so I'm not rushing too quickly. I just really wanted to write what happened right after the first chapter, so I managed to get this one out pretty easily. For now on, I'm going to try and go for one chapter per 1-2 weeks. Should give me ample to look over and revise it. Anyway, that's all for now! -AK_

_***edit: **Fixed some god awful grammar issues. And the fact that I used Kirito where I should've used Kazuto._


	3. Blue Tie Rose

_Another visitor? _Kazuto thought to himself. Puzzling, since the only two people who would've visited him, had already walked out of the door and were currently on their way home. Could it have been Agil or Klein? No, it couldn't be, they were in SAO as well, so there was no way they had recovered enough to visit him. His adopted father Minetake? No, he was normally in the United States this time of year, and even if he were here, he would've shown up with Suguha and Midori. That meant was only one possibility still remaining.

_The Government._

"Would you like me to send him in?"

_It was bound to happen sooner or later. _He thought, "Yeah, he can come in."

Kazuto fixed himself so that he'd be more upright in the bed. Over by the doorway, he could hear the nurse speaking to the gentleman who was most likely waiting just outside his view of the door frame. He could see him now, a character in all black with darkened shades, just like in the American films. Of course, the likelihood of that was probably slim. Whoever it was, they were more likely just a normal person that happened to wear a suit; beyond that, there probably wouldn't be any standout features. However, the person that walked into the room actually managed to surprise Kazuto with the way he looked.

He was a tall and slender gentleman, who wore a slate suit with a faded blue tie. In his jacket's front pocket was a decorative handkerchief. From this distance, he was able to look at the lower half of his body, which was composed of matching pants and a pair of black oxfords. Taking a glance at his face, he had a soft facial structure sitting behind a pair of rectangular glasses, which betrayed the per-conceived notion that he was a government agent. He also carried, with him, a black leather briefcase. For all Kazuto knew now, he could have been a representative for Argus or another game designer, probably here to ask him what the game itself was like.

The stranger walked up until he was about two meters away from the bed, where he took a moment to stop and bow. He fixed his glasses back into place as he brought himself back up and began to speak.

"Good evening Mr. Kirigaya. Forgive me for coming in uninvited like this, but I'd like to talk to you for a bit, if you don't mind."

He knew his name, so he clearly wasn't a game designer. They wouldn't have been able to access personal files like that. Well, there was also the chance that he read the name on the door, but he'd have to tell the front desk who he was visiting when he entered, so that was ruled out.

"I assume they're questions about SAO, aren't they?" Kazuto replied.

"They are. I think it's best to introduce my self so that we are better acquainted." The man held out his hand as he asked for a handshake. "My name is Seijirou Kikuoka, and I work for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, V.R. World Division."

"'V.R. World Division?'" Kazuto asked, accepting Kikuoka's handshake, "Are you a fairly recent division?"

"We are." Kikuoka said with a semi-embarrassed chuckle, "We were formed shortly after the SAO Incident began, hence our title as the 'V.R. World Division.' We exist to monitor social activity in the Virtual World. But unfortunately, due to the restrictions on Argus' network, we weren't able to do anything during the incident but watch maps with icons that told us where the players were. But, we've done our best to help out the players and families. I'm sure we're also helping to pay off your medical bills as well Kirito."

"Kirito?" Kazuto asked, "You know my avatar's name?"

"Of course we do." Kikuoka laughed, "We have all the registration information from the players, which means we know their names, emails, phone numbers, etc. Of course, when it come to names and phone numbers, we have no way of knowing if anyone falsified that information."

"Wait, does that mean you can tell me other players' real names if I wanted to know them?"

Kikuoka hid a slight grin forming in his lips, then he took a moment the think about the question.

"Well, I probably shouldn't, but our records do have your avatar down as the person who officially cleared the game. So I think I could make an exception."

Kazuto went wide eyed, and followed with a sudden burst of words,

"Then help me find the real name of-"

"Sorry. I can't help you with that just yet." Kikuoka replied, setting down his briefcase next to the foot of the bed.

"You can't, yet?" Kazuto retorted.

"First thing's first, I have to ask you a few questions. Besides, if I wanted to find anyone's name, I'd have to go back to the department and look it up on the computer. It's not safe to walk around with the identities of ten thousand people, you know."

Kazuto could've been unreasonable and argued the odds into his favor, but Kikuoka is one of the people who kept him and everyone else alive for the past two years. Given those conditions, he was somewhat indebted to them.

"Alright. What do you have for me?"

The smile was clear on Kikuoka's face as he leaned back in the chair with his arms crossed. He reached over to his briefcase and pulled out a tablet. He reached around the back of it and pulled out a stylus, cleared his throat and began to query.

"What was the environment of the game like?" Kikuoka asked.

"It felt a lot like the real world." he replied, "Minus the obvious fantasy elements of the landscape, it didn't feel that much different. The biggest difference was that most of everything was controlled by the floating menu that happened to pop-up everytime you wanted to do something."

"Interesting." Kikuoka said, whilst scribbling on his tablet, "How about necessities, did you get hungry or sleepy at all?"

"Yeah. You'd get hungry just like here in the real world. At first, everyone was weary to eat, given that it was just a bunch of data assembled, but everything actually had a taste; some things tasted really good, some things tasted horrible. As for sleep, you could definitely be tired; and if you didn't get a certain amount of sleep you'd be groggy for awhile. The only real difference with sleep is that your alarm clock went off inside your head, and the system would immediately wake you up, like a computer coming out of hibernate."

"Okay, and emotions? Could you feel emotions in the Virtual World?"

_Yeah. You could feel them. _Kazuto thought, recalling the number of times he'd watched somebody die in front of him. _You could feel them too well._

"You could. The NerveGear also had an emulation engine. If it sensed you feeling an emotion, you'd over-act it even if it was subtle. For example, if you teared up a little bit, the game would register that you were sad, and then you'd begin to tear up even more."

Kikuoka glanced up to take a look at Kazuto's face from behind his glasses, and then quickly returned to the screen of his tablet.

"So, how would you say the mental state of the players were throughout the time you were all trapped in there."

Kazuto retraced backwards through the months, as his mind fell deeper and deeper into a place he never wanted to see again, the first day of Sword Art Online. The fear, the panic, the sense of doom that fell over everybody like the black veil of a widow. _The mental state of the players? _There wasn't any other word for it, so he came out and said it plainly.

"Bad."

"How bad?"

Kazuto stopped, and forced himself to remember the dread of knowing he could die with the press of a button, or worse, by a program that didn't know any better. He tried to find an association for it, but that was just as bad as remembering it all.

"Imagine someone putting a loaded gun to your head, only you let them do it, but you didn't know until it was too late. And then, you're told by that person that you have to run from where you are now to the other side of the world without stopping."

"We live on an island country, that'd be impossible." Kikuoka pointed out.

"Exactly. But you have no other choice. Because before you even start, you're told that the gun is set to automatically fire if you try to move it from your head. That's what it was like."

Kazuto exhaled deeply, almost like a big weight came off his shoulders.

"Hm. Death awaiting at any second. Isn't that just like the real world?" Kikuoka asked.

This question, whether used as a retort or not, managed to baffle Kazuto. He wasn't quite sure how to answer it, since Kikuoka made a good point. It was much like the real world, yet it felt different; how could that have been explained? Finally, after a moment of silence, he found his answer.

"What makes it different in the case of SAO is that the only thing between you and the real world is a piece of metal placed on your head. Something so incredibly simple was holding our lives in its hands, something that we started to talk about less and less as the game progressed.

"Less and less? Does that mean the mental state changed over time?"

As the months progressed, people started to talk less and less about the real world, and the tension started lifting. Eventually, the players just recognized that it was just them in the world, and everyone just grew accustomed to it.

"Yeah. Near the end of the game, it became poor etiquette to talk about the real world in standard company. Even players like me on the front lines didn't talk about it that much. After awhile, the amount of people on the front lines in general started to dwindle. It was as if everybody was fine with living in Aincrad for the rest of their lives."

Kikuoka seemed to be intrigued by this answer. He set his tablet down in his lap and once again fixed his glasses. This gesture made his next question seem more personal than anything else.

"You were on that final charge right before the game was cleared. That obviously means you didn't give up on the real world. But you just said that many players gave up on clearing the game and lived normal lives. So, why didn't you?"

"Easy, it's because I-" Before he could finish that sentence, his head remembered the conversation in the guild room merely hours before the final raid.

"_I want.. to be with you for the rest of my life. I want to have a proper relationship so we can go on real dates, and really get married and grow old together!" _

Once again, a feeling of failure overtook Kazuto. It was that sentence that drove him all the way through the end of the game, and looking at the result, it was unbearable to think about.

"I.. I wanted to get out of that world. For a time, I forgot about it, but there were still things I wanted to do in the real world. And I couldn't let something that didn't even actually exist prevent that."

Kikuoka's face changed. Its soft features fell into a more serious demeanor. It was like calling someone's bluff in a poker match, as he glared directly into Kazuto's eyes.

"Works for me!" he cheerfully snapped, his entire persona changed in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. "Anyway, I still have a few more things to ask you." he said while he brought his tablet back up.

Another half hour passed by as the Q and A session proceeded. Never once did Kikuoka ask another question like that. Oddly enough, most of his questions revolved around the game environment, from little things like the petals of the flowers, all the way to larger things involving the body's movement and the five senses that were being emulated.

When he finished, Kikuoka stood up and did a few gestures on his tablet before putting it back in the briefcase. After clicking the case shut, he slid the chair back against the wall. It seemed like he was about to walk out of the room, but instead, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small notepad and a pen. He placed it on the end table next to Kazuto's bed and directed him towards it with an open palm.

"You told me what I wanted to know, so I'll tell you what you want to know. Write the names of the players here and I'll give you their real names and email addresses."

Kazuto opened his eyes wide. He'd forgotten that, earlier, he asked if he could find out the players real names. He reached his bony arm over to the end table and picked up the pen and paper. Hastily, he wrote the names down of all of his friends in the game.

_Thinker, __Yu__lier, __Sasha, Yolko, Caynz, Nishida, Argo, Silica, Agil, Lisbeth, Klein, __Asu- _

He paused and stared at the half-completed name on the bottom of the list. Just as quickly as he wrote it, he marked over it with the pen until the letters weren't even able to be seen.

"Hm? Is there someone you're changing your mind about?"

"Uh, no. I just hurriedly wrote them down and almost wrote someone's name twice."

Kikuoka smiled. Kazuto stared at him, scared to death he might call him out, but he didn't. In fact, this time Kazuto saw just how soft Kikuoka's facial structure was, as his smile looked completely innocent, and almost childish. Kikuoka took the paper and pen from Kazuto's lap and stuffed it back in his jacket pocket; he bowed very solemnly, picked up his briefcase and walked towards the door. As the door slid open, he turned back and added a few final notes.

"Thanks for your time, Kirito. I'll bring you their names before you check out of the hospital in a couple of days."

"Alright. That's fine." Kikuoka walked into the hallway and let the door slide shut behind him. Faint footsteps could be heard heading down the hospital corridor. _Not like I won't have to deal with you again anyway._

Kazuto seeped into the bed, and carefully put the blanket back over his torso. The first full day out and this is how he spent it. He took a few deep breaths like a heaven burden was finally gone. Most of what he did was talk, but that was more than enough to exhaust him, especially with someone like Kikuoka. The dull hospital scenery didn't make it any better, as he stared up at the ceiling once again. The plain, off-white ceiling had been his first sight when he awoke, and moments before he was watching the Floating Castle Aincrad fall from the sky. The comparison between each scene was far too great to even begin explaining it.

Just a little while longer, and he'd be able to go back home, wake up to Suguha's breakfast, and more importantly, sleep in his own bed, since the one he was currently laying in was anything but comfortable. Kazuto tilted his head towards the clock on the end table. The time read 7:03, it wasn't late, but it was certainly dark enough outside to go to sleep anyway. He closed his eyes and was out in a matter of moments.

* * *

_*A/N: It's been a week and one day, and when I look at these stats, I'm honestly shocked. This story currently has over 620 views. Six. Hundred. Twenty. That's kinda awesome. I can't thank you guys enough! I'm trying to keep the notes minimal on this chapter, so I'm going to leave off with the fact that the more I write this, the more I feel my Asuna Plushie is going to kill me in my sleep; that Sinon Figma I ordered needs to come out, soon. _


	4. A Week Later

"_Kirito,_

_Sorry for the delay, but __I've looked into the database and I've found the names of the players __you listed, here you go._

_Thinker- Mizushima Takahiro _

_Yulier- Ryoko Shiraishi _

_Sasha- Fujii Kyouko_

_Yolko- Nozomi Yamamoto_

_Caynz- Kawashima Tokyuyoshi_

_Nishida- Saito Shiro_

_Argo- Refused, asked for your email address instead. (Hope you don't mind.)_

_Silica- Keiko Ayano_

_Lisbeth- Rika Shinozaki_

_Agil- Andrew Gilbert Mills_

_Klein- Tsuboi Ryoutarou_

_P.S. I'm not sure why you crossed that name out, the name appeared with you a lot while we were monitoring. Anyway, that player's name is Asuna Yuuki. _

_-Kikuoka"_

_Her- her name?_

Deep within his chest Kazuto felt nothing but anguish. It was a dull, but raw feeling that slowly tore him from the inside. The feeling wasn't new, however. He had felt it ever since that first moment his eyes met the ceiling of his hospital room. It was when he first laid eyes on the real world again, that he knew that he'd never meet her again. Kazuto felt a knot in his stomach that almost made him nauseous. He closed the email, and stood up from his desk chair.

A week had passed since the day he first woke up in the hospital. In that time he managed to recover enough to walk, get up, and sit down without much effort; he still couldn't handle a set of stairs too well though. Luckily, the rehabilitation was going well. And he would be able to do more intense bodily motions within the next couple of months.

Kazuto looked out the window. It was a short window in terms height but it was incredibly wide. In fact, it took up the entire outer corner of his room. Past the leaves of the tree that blocked the next few houses on the street, was the skyline of Tokyo. When he was little, the sight of the skyscrapers reaching up into the clouds was fascinating. Now, they paled in comparison to what he'd seen. Sure, the mountains that dotted several of the floors in Aincrad didn't break the cloud line, but their sheer appearance looked truly beautiful. Just like other things that he'd grown to love in that world.

He was reminded why he started playing games to begin with, which was to escape the coldness of reality; but after two years in that world, if there was anything he learned there, it was that both places are equally their own reality. Especially in SAO, where death was absolute. There was no changing the fact that a dead person was truly dead. The more he thought about it, the more the memory pained him. On the first day of it all, he never expected that he'd fall in love. In his head, he constantly blamed himself.

_Idiot! If you didn't get so close to her, she wouldn't have done something so stupid for you! She would've still been alive then. I'm sure we would've met up in the real world anyway. Right? _

Too much thinking. Eventually he tired himself out thinking about it. In SAO, he was Kirito, The Black Swordsman, the solo player of the front lines. Now, he was Kazuto Kirigaya, and in this form, he knew he was weaker.

Before he knew it, he was on his knees with his forehead resting on the edge of the bed. Once again, he felt droplets fall from his eyelids.

_Ah... I'm crying again. I'm sorry, I'm not so strong after all._

His thoughts were broken when he heard several knocks on the other side of his bedroom door.

"Kazuto! Breakfast's ready!"

It was Suguha.

There was no way he could let her see him like this. She would only ask questions that she either wouldn't understand, or wouldn't believe the answers to. He managed to switch gears so that she so that she wouldn't be able to tell, as he hurriedly wiped his face off with the ends of his bed sheet.

"Alright, I'll need your help getting downstairs again though." he replied, followed by a sniffle.

He got back up on his feet and walked over to the door. Upon opening it, he saw Suguha, who was wearing her school uniform along with a cooking apron.

"Well, come on, I need to- Kazuto? What's wrong?"

He didn't cover his tracks well enough, as she saw that his eyes were still a shade of pinkish red. It wasn't a side of him that she often saw, but she knew that something was happening.

"Oh, that, I just, woke up about ten minutes ago."

Suguha's face immediately looked like it had been disenchanted. She probably could have called his bluff, but there wasn't any use since he probably wouldn't have said anything anyway.

"Of course you woke up late.." she sighed, "Anyway, let's get you downstairs so you can eat. I need to leave for school in a bit."

Kazuto followed her down the hallway where she stopped at the top of the steps. As soon as he was ready, she grabbed his left arm and slung it over her shoulder. One step at a time, both of them went down the stairs, with Kazuto holding onto the railing on the right. From the bottom of the stairs, they could see the kitchen table.

On Kazuto's side of the table, was a bowl of rice, and from this distance, looked to be a bowl of soup. On Suguha's side, was a bowl of rice topped with a meat of some kind, he wasn't able to tell from so far away. Suguha let go of him, and the walked over and sat in his chair. Now he could see his other bowl, which was filled with Miso soup. Both bowls were still hot, with visible steam lines, which meant that Suguha reheated the food just a few minutes ago. This meant that she was probably running late as it was today. Kazuto stared at the Miso, looking at the bits of tofu and onions floating around. He even stared at the bubbles sitting in the broth.

_The game really had an attention for detail, didn't it? The Miso there didn't look any different than this one. _

"I know you need to be conscious of what you're eating, but you don't have to analyze it that much. It's what we've been eating all week."

"Yeah, sorry." Kazuto noticed that it seemed she was waiting for something. Suddenly, to his embarrassment, he remembered. He placed his hands together and said calmly with her, "I gratefully receive."

They both spend the next several minutes eating the reheated breakfast. Suguha eating at a notably faster pace than Kazuto, which he was sure if it was just because of his recovery, or if she was just in a rush. In front of him was the newspaper's technology section, and while browsing the news, he saw an ad for a game, specifically, a VRMMO.

"Sugu?"

"Hm?"

"What's this game called 'Alfheim Online?'"

Luckily for her, Kazuto had the newspaper blocking his view of her, otherwise he would've seen the astonishment in her face. For a moment she was quiet, as it seemed she was gathering her thoughts.

"It's a game like SAO, except this one's supposed to be about fairies."

"What?!" Kazuto shouted immediately, almost slamming the newspaper on the table. There was a small jolt of pain in his right arm from the rapid movement, but it wasn't anything to worry about. "Did they forget what happened last time?"

"From what I heard, it's totally different in this one. Mainly because the NerveGear used in SAO was banned right after the incident started. Now they use a new gadget almost like a visor. I believe it's called the Amusphere?"

Suguha took a bite of her breakfast, which turned out to be last night's curry, before continuing.

"It's supposed to have restrictions in place that prevent the waves entering and exiting the brain from being so powerful, and I think the emitter for the waves is weaker as well, making it very non-lethal. It also monitors your heart rate while you play so if it goes to high it immediately forces you out of the game."

"Huh, where'd you learn so much about it?"

Suguha, a little embarrassed, turn a light shade of red and spat out, "I have friends that play it! They knew I wouldn't be okay with them playing since you were still in SAO, so they assured me that nothing bad would happen to them."

Kazuto opened his eyes wide. He was astonished by what she just said.

"You were worried about me?"

"Of course I was! Your my brother!"

He felt a quick pull in his heartstrings, followed by a feeling of warmth. It was a similar feeling to when he first realized that Asuna would've done anything to protect him, even die.

"Thanks Sugu, it means a lot."

He looked down at the partially finished Miso soup. Memories began run across his head of the many times he had to watch someone die, more importantly, the amount of times someone close to him died. Kayaba's face appeared in his head. Never did he have a motive, but if he did, he forgot by the time it was over anyway. Suddenly, another thought crossed his head.

_The World Seed._

"Say, Sugu, when do you have to leave for school again?"

Confused by the sudden change of both topic and atmosphere, Suguha answered answered his question.

"Um... Should be in a few- Eh!? I'm five minutes late!" She got up from the table, quickly said her thanks, and made sure to grab her school bag and coat in one fluid motion as she made a bee line out of the door.

"So that's what happens when she's running late." Kazuto said to himself, almost entertained. He picked up the soup and took a sip. In his head he was thinking about the World Seed. Kayaba mentioned that it was a new VRMMO. Could ALO have been created using something like it?

Possibly, after all, Sword Art Online wasn't the only VRMMO scheduled to be released a couple years ago, it was simply the most popular. However, Kayaba was also the developer of the nerve gear, the only VR headgear available, as well as SAO. Because of that, other VRMMO's naturally couldn't compare because they didn't know the hardware as well.

Yet this MMO, Alfheim Online, had a lot of reviewer comments on the ad complimenting the game. This probably meant that it was as successful as SAO, perhaps even more so because it didn't have the issue of players being trapped inside. Whatever the case, Kazuto needed to take another look at the World Seed, if it was what Kayaba said it was, than it demanded his attention.

Slowly, he finished the rest of his breakfast. Afterward, he set the bowls down into the sink and made his way up the stairs. He didn't need Suguha to help him up the stairs this time; he really only needed her to keep him from tripping and tumbling down them when he was heading downstairs, but going upstairs, he should be fine. Of course, that meant he probably wouldn't be able to get back down until she came home.

Kazuto opened the door to his room. It was a simple room, almost half of it taken up by just his bed. He had a closet to his left by the door, and on the far left corner, opposite of the window, was his desk, computer, and bookshelf. Even his desk was incredibly simple, as it was just a table with his computer screens on it, with his computer's CPU tower sitting underneath it. The bookshelf had five shelves, three of which were littered with a random assortment of programming books. On the middle shelf, sat his old school books, and more importantly a bluish-silver piece of headgear. His NerveGear.

He walked over to the bookshelf and held the helmet in his hands. Taking a good long look, he noticed all the scratches and nicks it had taken over it's lifetime. Most of these probably appeared when he was being taken to the hospital. Since no one was able to simply take them off, it must have taken a beating while he was being moved around. Still, given everything it had done, Kazuto felt sentimental about it in a ways, which is why he convinced Kikuoka to let him keep it while they disposed of all the others. That, and he needed to keep the World Seed with him, because it was saved on the internal memory.

_Thanks to you, Kayaba was able to trap us all in SAO. But thanks to you, I met all of my friends. Now, it seems like I need something else from you._

Kazuto looked around the sides and back panels for the external ports. They were on the back-right side, which was a convenient place for cable placement. All models of NerveGear had two ports, the first being the power adapter, and the second to be used with a connector cable for a computer. The reason for the connector cable was more for developers than it was for the average gamer. Anyone who could build a game environment, was able to plug the helmet into their computer, where they could copy the data onto a User File folder in its directory. From there, they could put it on, and run a different full dive full of developer options, on tech forums it was called, "The Developer Dive" function.

He opened his drawer which was off on its own to the left side of the desk; in the top drawer would be where he kept all of his computer cables. The NerveGear connector cable port was just the standard data transfer cable, to make it easier for people who just wanted to tinker around with the development options. Now that he thought about it, for something so lethal, Kayaba made a very user friendly device.

After picking out a random connector cable out of the several he had, Kazuto plugged on end into the back port of the helmet and the other into the port on his computer. Within a couple seconds, an icon appeared on his desktop, signifying that it was connected and able to accept files. Kazuto double clicked on the icon and revealed what looked to be about a dozen folders. Most of them were the standard folders one would see on any computer, since the NerveGear was technically a gaming console, which is just a specialized computer anyway. Because of this, it wasn't a bright idea to mess with any folder except for the folder labeled "User Files."

Kazuto already messed around with the User Files for few months before SAO's release, so when he opened the folder, there were several files and programs sitting in it. Most all of them were simple game cells that he'd made in his free time, those were the programs. The files were all things like physics and running commands that helped his environments operate. Since User Files is just a folder made up of things that the owner placed there, whichever one he didn't recognize or have memory of would've been the Seed. It should be placed there because, technically, it was also the download folder. However, there was one issue. There were two programs he didn't recognize.

Both programs had the word "cardinal" written in romaji letters followed by a few numbers. One of them read "cardinal.7333" and the other read "cardinal.79724" Just looking at them, most wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two, even though the answer was much more obvious that expected.

_Really Kayaba? That's how you mask the program? _He thought.

The first thought would be that it was organized like a catalog. Each number meaning a different program among a number of programs. It was likely that there were over seven thousand files and programs on the NerveGear, given that it blocked all of one's senses. However, their really wasn't any catalog. It was just a cipher.

The numbers of the extensions were just number with letters attached to them, just like with the old nine digit keypads of the early 2000s. For example, "1" represented the letters "A", "B", and "C", and so forth with each number getting three letters, with the exception of seven and nine having four. It was now simply a matter of writing down the letters that each number represented and then finding out what was spelled. It sounded easy, but it was much more tedious than it first appeared, since Kazuto would have to single out which letter it was, and then try to make sense of whatever word was much, especially considering they were all in romaji. Though, most programming speak was done in English, so it wasn't necessarily a too much of a problem.

In about three minutes, Kazuto managed to translate 7333 into the word "SEED." He could have stopped there, because that was what he was looking for, but he continued to decipher the other program and could only manage to get what barely looked like a word, "SYSAI."

"SYSAI? Hm... System AI?" It had to be that, which meant the unabridged name for the file should be "Cardinal System Artificial Intelligence."

Could he be holding the cardinal system as well? Combined with the World Seed that meant he could completely make a new SAO if he had the aptitude.

No, it wasn't possible. NerveGear had internal memory, but it wasn't too big. A creation engine alone must have taken up a large portion of the available space. The entirety of the Cardinal AI was housed in a large server room in the basement of Argus' headquarters. The idea that it could fit on Kazuto's NerveGear was ludicrous. That's when it hit him.

In an instant, Kazuto dug into the drawer once again, this time to look for the power cord. He pulled it out, unraveled it as quickly as his body would let him, and stuck it into the external power port. He closed the window on his computer, and yanked the connector plug from the headgear. Afterward, he laid down on his bed and placed it on his head; without delay he shouted into his ceiling,

"Link Start!"

* * *

The world around him faded, as it was replaced by the boot-up screen of the helmet. Over the next few moments it ran several checks to make sure it was functioning properly. Every sense had been successfully blocked out, and the NerveGear began its operations. The system blinked an alert message stating that there was no game inserted into its drive, followed by a question asking if the Kazuto wanted to go activate developer mode. The gesture to hit yes was a simple yes, so he simply nodded, which sent him into a blank room.

It wasn't really a room. It was just an empty cell. Because it was a VR world, it would be a placeholder until the user loaded one of their custom made cells. It was a neutral shade of gray as all game environments are before they're built. This also meant that the floor wasn't really a floor, just the non existence of anything set to Z coordinate to the default zero. In essence, it was a giant empty space.

The beauty of the Developer Dive was the ability to open a menu and change loaded cells on the fly. A designer could test multiple environments with one sitting without having to constantly activate and deactivate the system itself. It was a helpful tool, very much due to the fact that all the senses had to be blocked out before the environment could even load.

He didn't notice it until now, but the system defaulted to his old SAO avatar without the weapons. It was better than walking around the space as the default clear model, but it was still incredibly strange that it dug up his SAO avatar without even a prompt. Everything felt the same way too. When he did a quick spin around, his coat moved with him. Thankfully, his body was the same as it was in the game. It was also a plus that he could move around as if he wasn't completely inactive for two straight years.

With a gesture of his hand, a menu window appeared before him. Its construction similar Sword Art Online Game Masters' windows, only instead of things like "Status," "Map," "Inventory," "Options," etc., it had sub-menus labeled "CPU Status," "Directory," "Shutdown/Reset," and other things like that. As a precaution, Kazuto tapped on the Shutdown/Reset option; to his relief, the option to shut down the simulation appeared was there. He let out a deep sigh, it was nice to finally see that option there again.

He tapped the Shutdown/Reset button again to make that menu disappear, which he replaced with the Directory's sub-menu. From here, Kazuto was able to explore the files on his NerveGear, but because he was currently using it, the only one he could really do anything with were those in his user files. He opened the folder and looked at the options available to him. Out of curiosity, he hit program that he made labeled "squarespace." What appeared was just as the name implied, a large red square platform; it was a basic cell he created for testing the in-game objects he never got around to making. Though it was plain, it still livened up the emptiness a little.

Kazuto scrolled through the User Files and noticed that the World Seed wasn't present. Meaning that it was most likely something that the NerveGear couldn't open by itself.

"Seems you can only use that one from a computer then."

At the very bottom of the list, was the program that caused him to come here in the first place. Part of him said that he shouldn't have come back to the virtual world, but if this program was what he thought it was, then it was worth it. Kazuto tapped on the program's button and a message appeared in the top left corner of his vision with a loading bar. Once it reached one hundred percent, it showed a green check-mark, indicating that the program had been loaded. The red platform was still there, so true to being an AI, it was compatible with a virtual environment. A good sign towards what he thought it was.

Yet, when he looked around, nothing was there.

A heavy, deep sigh escaped Kazuto. Admittedly, he was half expecting it to be a dummy program anyway, but at least it was worth a try. He closed the Directory menu and opened the Shutdown/Reset window. He could have simply hit the reset button, but that was only truly useful when a running program unexpectedly stopped working, not so much on a program that didn't even properly load. But just before he tapped on the Shutdown button he heard the sound of two feet softly touching the cell floor behind. He suddenly closed the menu window altogether and froze in place.

A cold chill went down his back, as he feared to turn around. Nonetheless, he had to turn around, it was important that he looked at what was behind him, even if it wasn't what he was expecting. Kazuto turned around nervously, and stared at the figure behind him.

It was a girl, wearing a white dress with long black hair, she didn't look older than eight or nine. Her large black eyes were full of a certain mystery, but they were friendly. As she stared at Kazuto her eyes grew even bigger. The size of her eyes was matched by a huge smile on her face. Like this, she looked so innocent, it was impossible not to see it.

Kazuto felt a couple tears forming in his own eyes with a slight smile gracing his face. He looked at the child, and spoke to her softly.

"Yes, Yui. It's me."

* * *

_*AK: Hey, I'm back everyone! Yeah, I know, I'm over a week behind on this one. I had a busy Thanksgiving week, needless to say. But hey, this chapter turned out to be over 4000 words long! (I know one of my reviewers said they wanted longer chapters, well here you go.) Anyway, there really shouldn't be too much more filler until we get into the Phantom Bullet arc, which I look forward to as much as you guys. I can very easily go off and write another chapter just full of my babbling so I'm going to leave off here. See you all next chapter! _

_P.S. Those of you that got my Alicization references, you guys are awesome. _


	5. Fishing Net

"Daddy!"

Yui ran towards Kazuto and wrapped her arms around him. The feeling of them around his torso felt familiar, and it drove another nail in his chest. Yui was only a child, so she wasn't as tall as he was, but, that's not why he felt so off. If anything, it was how firm her grip was. He hadn't felt someone cling to him so tightly since that afternoon in the canyon of Floor 55.

"Thank you... I still have Yui.."

It felt as if the nail was bent, and twisted within him. An instant later, Kazuto's spine felt like it was cold to the touch. _I knew the emulation engine was good, but it's this_ _good? _he thought to himself. His nerves began to lash out at him one by one. It didn't make sense, but millisecond by millisecond, it was like a switchboard being turned on one at a time. It didn't matter what was rational at the time. Seeing Yui, their daughter, still alive was enough to make him happy, but at the same time, a fear overtook him when he thought about the fact that he'd have to tell her eventually.

"What's wrong? Your body's suddenly stiffened."

Eventually turned out to be right now. Of course, Yui was originally created to be a mental health care program. She was easily able to tell when someone was distraught or in emotional pain, so there wouldn't be any hiding from her like this. Kazuto lightly pushed the child away, leaving his arms on her shoulders with a deathly look on his face as he tipped his head in the direction of the floor.

"Yui. I need to tell you something."

"Hm? What?"

Yui looked attentive, with her large, black, mysterious eyes staring up at him. He only looked into them for a second before he couldn't bear to look anymore. It was already hard enough for him to cope with it by himself, but now, he had to worry about Yui's sake too. He'd never forgive himself if he caused Yui to fall into a pit of depression, much like his own. "Just say it already." ran across his thoughts multiple times.

"Before SAO ended, Asuna. She. She.."

He couldn't even finish. This would've been the first time he'd said it out loud, and he hated the very thought of that. If he didn't actually say it, it was like he didn't accept it, and if he didn't accept it, there was still a chance that she was still alive. However, there was no changing the truth. Kazuto fell to his knees and dug his hands into the floor of the cell below.

"I'm sorry! I couldn't save her!" He screamed in between bursts of sobs.

Of all times, why now couldn't he hold himself back? He was known in Aincrad for how stone cold his expressions were. But in the end, even someone who was practically the stuff of legend is still human. His screams of anguish continued while his tears kept hitting the bottom of the cell and then disappearing into shards of light.

_You failed them._

In front of Yui of all people. If anybody, the one person that he had to be strong for. Here he was now, bent on his knees before her losing all sense of rationality. He tried, but he failed in an attempt at getting back up. As soon as his foot touched the ground, it immediately gave way when it felt the rest of his weight. Now on his stomach, he had no choice but to force himself back to his knees using his arms. His body felt incredibly heavy, the emulation engine was at work.

Finally, he sat up on his knees with his arms hanging down and his head pointing towards the infinity of the cell's ceiling. Only acknowledging Yui through his words; his body most closely represented a husk.

"She's in a place that I can't ever reach her. Yui, I'm so-"

Before he knew, it two little arms were grasped around his shoulders, with long black hair pressed against the right side of his face. The grip was incredible, much more forceful than earlier.

"St- stop crying! Please Daddy! You need to stop!" she shouted, with her face buried in his shoulder. He couldn't her it, but Kazuto could feel the sniffles in between each of her sobs.

"Please.. Stop it Daddy..."

Astonished, Kazuto stared at the head of hair clamped on his shoulder. His eyes were beginning to dry, but a hollow feeling still consumed his being. Yet, with Yui against him like this, he felt his heart beating steadily faster. He lifted his hands to return the gesture, but dropped them as the thought, _'You don't have the right.' _crossed his head. Shortly after, he ignored that thought and hugged her as tightly as he could, vowing in his head to never let her go. A partial gratuitous smile found its way to Kazuto lips, along with some genuine happiness for the first time in a long time.

"I'm sorry Yui. I need to stay strong."

At first, he wasn't answered by a voice, but by a shake of her head, as she pushed herself off of him.

"No." she said, immediately followed by a sniffle, "We need to stay strong. It's what Mommy would want us to do."

"Right. She wouldn't." Kazuto replied.

They hugged again, and stayed like this for several moments, the remainder of their tears falling all the while.

After a while, once they transitioned back to their normal selves, Kazuto opened the menu screen and browsed through the files once again. He looked at where the World Seed was stored, and then remembered that he wasn't able to access it. However, there was someone who could look through it right now.

"Yui, I need you to look at a program for me."

"Really? What kind of program?"

"It's something Heathcliff gave me after the game ended, he called it the World Seed."

"World Seed?" Yui asked, only tilting her head in confusion.

"Hm.. How can I explain it?" In truth, he couldn't really explain it himself since he hadn't taken a good look at it for himself yet, but he still remembered what Kayaba said about it. "It's supposed to be a VRMMO creation engine. I can't access it from inside my NerveGear, and I can't risk copying it to my computer if it has a virus in it.."

"That would explain that then." Yui replied, "A seed is just like an activator switch in programming terms. But and entire creation engine in one package? Where is it stored?"

Kazuto scratched the side of his forehead with one of his fingers, "Um.. Inside my NerveGear? That's where you're currently being stored as well."

Yui looked at him dumbfounded, for a moment. But it was a decent idea. Being a program herself, she would be able to delve into its individual bits of coding and check it much more thoroughly than a human could.

She nodded, her usual smile on her face, "Alright, I can take a look at it!" Several windows appeared in front of her, looking a lot like GM command windows. Many of them were taskbars and statistics, but that didn't mean they're weren't useful. Another window opened showing a large black box with thousands of lines of code scrolling around. After a moment, all the screens collapsed and Yui gave her report.

"It's definitely a game creation engine, but even though it's labeled cardinal, it appeared to be a smaller version meant to run on smaller servers. It also has a few security locks on the core AI. The max server size anyone would be able to make is eight thousand, and it'd never run as smoothly as Sword Art Online."

"That's probably a good thing." Kazuto replied, "Cardinal's programming was the reason that all of our NerveGear actually performed the action of frying our brains. Having a weakened version will be much safer. Can you search it for anything undesirable?"

"I can." Yui said, "What do you plan on doing with it?"

"If this is what I think it is, a kit that will allow someone to make their own VRMMO, I'm considering releasing it for everyone to use. Maybe it'll revive the VR world."

_And maybe it'll bring me one step closer to finding out what he meant back then. _

It was possible that Kayaba foresaw the negative impact the SAO Incident would have on the virtual world; during their conversation in the sky of Aincrad in the last few moments, he seemed to be very fond of it.

"If you need to think about it longer, I can look at it piece by piece when you're not using your NerveGear."

Yui was still standing in front of Kazuto. Once again wearing her signature stare, this time with a happy expression on her face. Was she happy that he was considering saving the VR world? He wasn't able to tell.

Admittedly, it made him a bit uncomfortable, but it didn't matter. If Yui was willing to look at it while he was away, he would be able to get other business done in the real world. At his current rate, he'd have to study independently for a year just so he could pass a high school entrance exam. On top of that, would be spending every day for the next few months in physical therapy until his real body was healthy again.

"Okay, that sounds smart. I probably won't be able to put on my NerveGear every time we need to talk about it though, I still have my studies and rehab to go to."

"Hm.." Yui pondered, "Since the cardinal system isn't around to limit my operations, I might be able to contact your phone of email if you leave the headgear plugged in and connected to the internet."

It was a risky idea, especially considering that he shouldn't even have his NerveGear in the first place, let alone have an AI freely roaming around the internet. Then again, Yui wasn't an average AI, not that AI's were all that common. She was a product of Kayaba's genius, as much as Kazuto hated to admit it. She'd be able to get around any problem that came in her way, and because of her ability to replicate human emotions and thoughts, that meant she'd also know when something was clearly too risky to attempt. Besides, if they noticed anything weird, Kikuoka would probably come to Kazuto before anything else.

"Alright Yui. I'll leave the NerveGear plugged in. Just, try not to make a mess of things on my computer."

"Got it daddy!" she chuckled, "Now you should really go back to the real world, I'm sure your real body wants to eat right now.

He couldn't deny the fact that he had a rather light breakfast.

"Okay, contact me if you find anything."

He opened the command window, as Yui opened up a window of her own. With the avatar Kirito's hand, he went to the bottom of the menu and tapped on the Shutdown/Reset option, and then on the shutdown option. Before hitting the circle on the confirmation window that woud've sent him back to the real world, he glanced over at Yui, who was surfing through various lines of coding in front of him.

"Oh yeah, my real name is Kazuto Kirigaya, for when you want to talk to me."

"Gotcha!"

Right as he hit the button, he spoke to himself so quietly that he could barely hear himself.

"Asuna, I promise I'll keep her safe."

–

"That felt like it would never end." Sugou said as he stood in front of the altar. He took his glasses off and wiped the lenses with the inside of his suit's jacket. "I faked tears for you, just so you know." He stared at the picture that adorned the front of the casket, and a crooked smiled graced his face.

"But, even still, you're so beautiful..." licking his lips as he said it, "I would've loved to have fun with you every night."

There were a few flowers surrounding the base of the altar itself; surprisingly, it was a small wake. Of the flowers that were there, there was one set with the most unusual color, red. With a look of satisfaction, Sugou gazed at them, and then returned his view to the picture.

"Oh? I brought those red flowers for you. I know, I know. They're not traditional, but they smell as lovely as your hair. Oh, how I'll miss that scent."

"I'd be very happy if you didn't talk to her like that ever again."

Sugou's face transitioned to a scowl, as he despised the sound of the voice behind him; but as he turned around, it completely disappeared. He talked to the man as if he were a prized colleague.

"Hm? I'm sorry?"

"I know you heard me Nobunyuki."

Standing before Sugou was a young man around his age. He was a few centimeters shorter than himself, with a better physice. He had a fair complexion, much like that of Asuna's, and his hair was just long enough to have a shaggy appearance, especially with it's subtle reddish-brown tint. Sugou smiled slightly, and gestured with his hand while speaking.

"I don't know what you mean Kouichirou. Brother. I would never say anything bad of someone so important to both of us."

Kouichirou narrowed his eyes and stared at Nobuyuki as if he were analyzing a business rival, which in all essence, Sugou was anyway. When it came to who would take over RECT, his father Shouzou had mentioned on numerous occasions that the decision was between the two of them. This matter alone had already dampened their relationship, though it was considerably more so in Sugou's case, who was now on thin ice after Asuna's death.

"Don't call me brother. I, for one, will never consider you a member of this family."

He glanced over at picture of his sister sitting in front of the casket. Taking a deep breath, he gently bowed his head to it, and darted his gaze over to Sugou.

"I'll stop now, out of Asuna's respect. You should do the same." Kouichirou flicked his eyes towards the red flowers, and immediately back at Sugou. "And get those out of here, you offend your own country by doing that." Without another word, he walked out without so much as an acknowledgment of Nobuyuki's presence.

"Hmph. He seems awfully touchy today."

Sugou looked back over at the picture. Her long, chestnut hair was in its full beauty in the photo they used. If he was correct, that was taken the last time the whole family went to Kyoto, back when Asuna was first introduced to him. Once again, a smile appeared on his sharp face.

"Of course, you were never too fond of me either."

Sugou turned towards the door, weaved through the crowd in the hallway, and walked outside. He stood next to one of the flower beds out in front of the building. With the mid November weather, it was gradually getting colder and colder out. Thankfully, the suit jacket provided the one extra layer he needed to be able to tolerate the chill feeling of the air. Sugou reached into the jacket's inner pocket and pulled out his cellular device, one of the newer models provided by the RECT company as a gift for his service. After pressing the lock button on the side, the phone's self-facing camera turned on and looked at his face for a brief moment as it confirmed it was him before the home screen appeared.

He tapped on the icon marked "contacts" and flicked through the names until he got to one that was labeled, simply as, "R&amp;D Office." Suspiciously, he shifted his eyes to the left and right, then he turned his head to look behind him; but there was nothing there except for the door to the funeral hall. Sugou returned to the screen of his phone, where he selected the "R&amp;D Office" contact and chose the "Call" option that followed. Placing it to his ear, he heard the phone ring about three times before the other end picked up.

"Hello?" A very awkward-sounding voice said.

"It's me, Sugou."

He spoke with a direct and blunt manner; the voice on the other end sounded like it was caught off guard.

"A-ah! Yes! What do you need, sir?"

"Have you managed to get that list yet?"

Instead of a voice, Sugou could hear tapping on a keyboard and the clicks of a mouse for a few moments.

"We didn't get the list yet, but we did manage to get ahold of the server logs, we should have the list within the next couple days."

A wry grin appeared on Sugou's face, as he followed up with another question.

"Good. So how are the patients doing?"

"The testing group is nominal." While he was talking, Sugou could hear him typing away on a keyboard. "The research is going along great, if only we were able to receive the task of caring for the server sooner, we'd have more tools at our disposal. We lost four of them just in the past couple of weeks."

"Yes, well, Sugou replied, as he turned his head back to make sure no one was watching, "the number we have is still acceptable. Besides, it's not like anyone's going to miss them."

The voice paused again, but this time is sounded more like an actual pause to think for a moment.

"Yeah, speaking of which, isn't it risky to be discussing this over the phone? I'm sure they're monitoring this call."

"Don't worry, this is a secure business line, with how many bones I've had RECT throw at them, I doubt they'd bother. Anybody can be fooled to look the other way if you distract them well enough. Besides, I'd love to come see my work in person right now, but I'm stuck here until tomorrow evening."

A chuckle could be heard on the other end.

"Yeah, how's that going? Is her brother being the usual stiff?"

This time, a chuckle came from Sugou.

"Of course he is. He just can't handle the fact that his father likes me more than him, how pitiful."

"Haha, The perks of marrying the only daughter."

"Yes.." This time, his joking tone became more of a serious one. "Speaking of which, what news do you have on her?"

Suddenly, the other end sounded both serious and terrified, as if it were the moment after a tyrant king had just stomped his staff on the ground.

"Um.. We couldn't find it."

Sugou's face bunched up and a quick burst of anger flooded him. So much that he could feel a fire brewing in his chest.

"How can you not find it?! It's just like all the others!"

"Yeah, but.." the person on the other end seemed hesitant to answer now, "I- It just wasn't there. We did exactly what we'd been doing, but it was like it vanished out of existence! The only way I can think to explain it, is if someone else had gone in and changed the parameters around before us."

"That's impossible." Sugou sneered in response, "We're the only ones with the ability to access the servers, both now and especially back then. Go back and keep looking!"

"Yes, sir." they said quietly.

Yet another moment of silence happened, before Sugou added,

"Get me that list, ASAP." immediately afterwards, he ended the call.

_If someone did change the parameters before us, then there's only one other person who could have done it. I can't believe you're still dragging me down._

A barely audible growl escaped from his mouth, and it was clear that he was more than displeased about the news he'd just received. Realizing his disposition, he closed his eyes, inhaled, and then exhaled, in order to calm himself down. Finally, he turned his whole body around and glared at the facade of the building he had been standing in front of. Before he went back in, his devilish grin appeared on his face again.

"Looks like we have our antagonist."

* * *

_*AK: Sickness, Christmas, Family Things, AC Rogue related things, it's been a bit busy. (I really don't have an excuse with the AC Rogue, do I?) _

_Most of what I've been doing lately is devising the main plotline, actually. And I noticed this is where things get really interesting. From here on out, I really start to mess with the canon; not that I haven't already done a good deal of messing with it as is. Did anyone watch the latest [last] episode of SAOII yet? It might be beneficial to do so, or else a certain part later on will be a tad confusing. (You could also just read the Fairy Dance arc of the LN.)_

_P.S. The list of real names in the beginning of chapter four? The characters that don't have confirmed real names, I just used their Japanese VAs' names. I can write this story but I can't make up a name to save my life. *sigh*_

_P.S.S. Since it's officially Christmas week, I'll probably not be writing much at all, so just keep that in mind that I might be delayed (even more) than my usual two weeks for the next chapter._


	6. The Power of Three

The train ride had a familiar feeling. Kazuto leaned back and felt his back arch into the cushions that made the seat comfortable to sit in. He pondered in his head for a few minutes as he looked out the window at the city the seemed to be moving all around him. After a while, the city passing by the window felt like a blur, and that's when he knew where he had felt this before.

When the startup command, "Link Start," was said at an audio level high enough for the NerveGear to hear it, its next job was to begin the immersion process for the full dive. The idea of canceling out all exterior sensory input was already a miracle in itself, but the feeling that a player felt as the senses were replaced was something that could never be replaced, or nullified. It always felt like falling without falling. The entire body was still there, but it was as if you could actually feel your consciousness leaving it. It was one of those odd instances to the VR world that no one really talked about, but simply acknowledged and moved on from. Luckily, the feeling leaving a full dive was essentially the same as waking up from a dream.

Only yesterday, Kazuto was reunited with Yui, the adopted AI daughter of Asuna and his that was originally thought to be deleted. Today, after several emails back and forth last night, he would be meeting up with one of his best friends in Sword Art Online, the store-owner Agil. He had given Kazuto an address and an astonishingly simple set of directions. He was to get on the train to Okachimachi, then head to this street name, then keeping going down until he found a rustic looking building with a pair of dice on the front door, a restaurant called "The Dicey Cafe."

Truth be told, it was a little surprising to find out that Agil was a business owner in the real world. Usually, when people played MMOs, they go for a life that was different from their own. Granted, SAO wasn't just another MMO; but a lot of players still went with that approach to their characters. Agil's motive towards opening a shop in Aincrad was definitely different though.

The Town of Beginnings was easily the largest city in Aincrad, but because Algade was on Floor 55, which made it closer to the front lines, it became the most populated city as soon as people began to realize how large it was. Unlike the Town of Beginnings, however, the layout of Algade was very irregular. To put it into perspective, Algade was designed much like an old European city, with many bends and complicated alleyways with a much more sensible main road going right through the center. It was just off of this main road, where Agil set up a general wares shop.

The reason he opened a general store? To supply players with things they needed to survive with. That is the sole reason. He bought everything from equipment, weapons, potions, crafting ingredients, etc. at as low a price as he could bargain. Then he would sell it for a price only a little higher, all the while maintaining a "Buy cheap, sell cheap." motto.

From what Kazuto could tell, Agil only made enough profit from the store to keep up with the building rent and to feed himself every night. Usually, the only time Agil ever took something for himself was on the rare occurrence he went out monster farming, which he only did when stock was low, or if there was something that was in that high of a demand. At the end of the day, Agil was one of the most popular, most respected shop owners.

As the train slowed into Okachimachi Station, there was the unforgettable feeling that he was about to be hurled from his seat. Kazuto never rode on the train much, but there was no other place where being thrown from one's seat was the norm. He stepped out of the train car and walked through the station, proceeding down the large staircase that would take him to street level. Once his feet stepped on the concrete sidewalk that bordered the road, he reached into his right jacket pocket and felt around for a folded up piece of paper. Written in something that was slightly better than chicken-scratch handwriting, it was the name of the street that Kazuto would have to head down to reach the cafe.

He began to slowly walk down the sidewalk in the direction that appeared to be correct one. According the Agil, the Dicey Cafe was only a twenty minute walk from the train station. Which is probably why Kazuto took the train this time, there were many bus stops in the Taito district of Tokyo, but there was only one Okachimachi Railway Station, walking from here was much easier than taking a bus, hoping Kazuto got off at the right stop, and then frivolously searching for the right street. At least this way he elminated the first concern.

At this point, Kazuto began to lose himself within the crowd. This was his first time walking around Tokyo by himself for at least two years, and surely he looked much different from everyone else due to the tremendous amount of weight loss he suffered while in SAO. Yet no one seemed to mind, or at the very least, they were respectable enough not to stare at him. That was when Kazuto realized how foreign his surroundings were to him. This city had been his home for his entire life, by now he felt like an outsider, as if he didn't belong. If that was the case, where did he feel most at home now?

Another thing he hadn't noticed until now was the sheer amount of people, not just in this area, but in the entire city in general. Even though Aincrad was a fairly compact place, it always felt rather empty once you wandered outside of a town. This was really aided by the fact that the game's set population of ten thousand was already cut by forty percent only a month into it all. Here in Tokyo, there was always people, no matter where you turned.

Maybe this was the current mentality of all of the SAO Survivors? All of them lived their lives in that world for two whole years, waking up everyday, almost always with a weapon by their side, doing everything through menus that floated in front of them. It had to be hard adjusting to reality again. Even with all that considered, Aincrad felt like nothing more than a dream to him now. Moving on from that dream was for the best, no matter how hard it was.

About twenty minutes passed, and Kazuto found himself standing in front of building that matched Agil's description of the place; the description only being the pair of dice that adorned the door. There was only one word to summarize this exterior, and that word was Western. To be fair, much of Japan had gained a very Westernized culture ever since the turn of the millennium, but this building seemed to shout it at Kazuto. There were posters on the outside as if they were advertising a nearby circus, and the building itself appeared to be constructed from wood panels that have seen their fair share of the elements. The wooden planks that made of the exterior were probably no more than a facade though, given that the chances the building was just built like this was too irregular considering the architectural design of every building around it. He could say anything he wanted to regarding his opinion towards the appearance of this place, but Kazuto couldn't deny that it was hard to miss.

The main door opened, and gave off a bell chime that sounded like the average convenience store. The interior looked very much like the exterior, as everything was made of out wood. The walls and floors were wood panel, the chairs and table were solid wood, and the bar and shelves behind the bar appeared to be solid wood. At the far left wall was a bulletin board and a jukebox and to the right, hanging on the wall, was a large map of the continental United States. There weren't many tables inside, only four, and the place was empty, it was actually surprising considering how crowded the street just outside was.

"Uh, hello?" Kazuto called out in the empty restaurant.

No answer.

"Agil? Are you here?" He asked again, hoping for a response.

Nothing.

A couple moments of silence passed, but Kazuto stayed exactly where he was. Him and Agil agreed to meet up today, and this was the business that Agil himself owned, it was impossible for him not to be here right now. Another second passed, then the door from behind the bar opened up.

"Kirito!" The practical giant of a man had a single crate in his arms, and as he set it on the counter-top it made a rattling sound that was just like bottles of soda. "How are you doing?"

There was no doubt, this was definitely Agil. He resembled his avatar perfectly with the exception of the noticeable weight loss due to the same circumstances Kazuto was so thin. Agil always was a friendly person, very charismatic, something that was very useful to him as a shopkeeper that sold things cheaply. In a way he was the opposite of Kazuto in the way he approached people and conversation.

"Hey, Agil. I've been doing fine, you?"

Agil's face made it very obvious that he noticed the hesitation in Kazuto's voice. Nonetheless, he replied just as anyone else would reply as he opened up the crate and began putting bottles into a cooler that sat next to the shelf behind the bar.

"I'm well, but I have to say, life doesn't feel all that much different for me. Since I'm pretty much doing exactly what I did in game."

The two of them shared a lighthearted laugh, Kazuto's sounding a little more forced. Agil went from shopkeeping to barkeeping, there was certainly a difference in the actions, but all in all it was the same. Even Kazuto couldn't deny it was humorous.

"To tell you the truth, I was actually surprised when you said you owned a business in the real world."

This was met with another laugh from Agil.

"I never really talked about it," Agil noted, "but I've owned this place for several years now. While we were in SAO, I thought for sure this would go out of business, but my wife managed to keep it open while was over there."

Such a clear statement astonished Kazuto, who had to double take.

"Wait Agil, you're married?"

This was met with yet another hearty laugh, but this time it ended more abruptly.

"Yeah.. In the game I was worried to talk about her because I thought if I mentioned her a lot, I'd spend too much time worrying if she was okay instead of myself." As if he immediately caught onto his current mood, Agil switched gears to a lighter note on that end. "But we've been good to each other. I actually met her a few years ago because she was a repeat customer. At least now I know why."

Agil seemed to stop himself after that comment. He continued to stock the cooler with the bottles from the crate, and switched topics on the fly.

"I emailed Klein too, he should be here sometime soon. Unlike me, he's not his own boss, so he can only leave to come here at a certain time."

"I'm sure he's just like he his in the game." Kazuto noted with a vaguely nostalgic tone.

"Most likely," Agil mentioned, "I don't see him any other way."

Agil went to grab a glass from under the counter, before filling it up with a dark brown liquid and sliding it down to his new customer.

"Don't get any ideas, it's just Oolong tea, I figure you'd want a drink since you came all the way here."

"Mm. Thanks." Kazuto added.

For another hour or so, Agil continued to tidy up the restaurant, all the meanwhile having a conversation with Kazuto. The way he flawlessly spoke while performing maintenance on everything in his business was a sure sign that he knew exactly what he was doing. The two of them talked about everything from the first boss fight to the most random beast encounters they experienced. They even mentioned the Ragout Rabbit affair, even though that story featured a certain party.

Suddenly the door opened with a sound so loud, the bell chime was barely audible over it. Coming in from the doorway was a tall man around Agil's height, with an average build that also had a notable weight loss. He wore a white button up shirt that was still tucked in, but the tie had been loosened up and the top portion was unbuttoned. Surprising, yet not surprising, was the mans spiky red hair what was held up by a maroon bandana. In fact, it was the exact same bandana his avatar had in game.

"Hey, Klein, it's about time you showed up." Kazuto nudged in a friendly manner.

"Ack. Give me a break man! Unlike you, I have a dayjob I can't skip out on." Klein jokingly whined.

"Not until you can beat me in a duel I don't have to." Kazuto snapped back.

Agil chuckled at their banter, "Yeah, you guys are still the same." He tossed the towel he was using to wipe the counter over his shoulder and leaned back into the shelf. "Well, now that we're all here, shall we introduce ourselves?"

A simultaneous "Huh?" came from both Klein and Kazuto.

"Oh come on, guys. Our real names. Sure, we already know 'em through our emails, and we'll still probably call each other by our avatar names, but this is the first time we've all actually seen each other in the real world."

That last sentence gave a sudden realization to all of them. This was the first time they've ever seen each other outside of the game, and here they were talking so casually even though it's been over a week since they all last talked together period.

Klein was the first to break the momentary pause that followed.

"I'm Tsuboi Ryoutarou. But please, Klein rolls off the tongue faster."

Agil was the next to introduce his real name.

"My name's Andrew Gilbert Mills. Yes, that's a foreign name. My family is actually from America, but I was born and raised here." Given that Agil had no discernible accent, Klein and Kazuto couldn't verify this as anything but true. After Agil closed his mouth, he reached under the counter for another two glasses and filled them with water before sliding one of them to Klein. He noticed Kazuto's glass was also empty, so he grabbed it and filled it up with some water as well.

Speaking of Kazuto, it was down to him now. Who actually looked pretty happy at this point. At least two of his friends came out okay.

"My name is Kazuto Kirigaya. My avatar's name was just an abbreviated combination of the two."

"Hm.." Klein said as he scratched at the scruff on his chin, "Kiri- gaya. Kazu- to. Yeah, that's actually pretty clever. And I'm guessing yours is the same way, right Agil?"

"More of an abbreviation than the former, but yeah."

Klein couldn't help but scratch the back of his head nervously. Naturally, he was next in line when it came to avatar name backgrounds, and it was fairly obvious that his wasn't a reworking of his real name. Right as he cleared his throat, he was saved when a ringing noise came from Kazuto's pocket.

Kazuto pulled out the source of the chime, his cell phone, and glanced at the name on the screen. Not even a brief moment later, he stood up from his stool and politely waved his hand at his two friends.

"I need to take this, sorry guys, but I'll be outside."

Kazuto rushed out of the Dicey Cafe and leaned on the wall of the building adjacent to it, keeping the door to the restaurant in sight. He then quickly hit the answer button on his phone and brought it up to his ear.

"Yui?"

"Yes! Daddy, I finished looking through the World Seed! I even tinkered around with it so I know who to use it!"

"Does that mean it's safe?" Kazuto said, with excitement catching his breath.

"Yeah! It'll be fine! Do you still want to upload it to the net?"

This was the big question. If he did that, anyone who wanted to try their hand at game design could download it and build their own VRMMO. Even though the hysteria from the SAO Crisis was just now subsiding, it would still do a lot of good for the genre. As much as Kazuto disliked Kayaba for everything he did, Kayaba was right about one thing. In the Virtual World, anything was possible.

"Definitely, especially since I know it's safe to give out. I want to try it out myself as well."

"Hehe!" Yui couldn't help but giggle, "No problem! I'll show you how to use it. When are you - #%!$- ?"

The last few words came out as nothing but static.

"What did you just say Yui?"

"Um," clearly there was a wonder in her voice, "when -!&amp;%^!$*-?"

Once again the static noise overpowered Yui's sentence. Kazuto pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it quizzically. It was the same phone he had since before he even joined the SAO beta test, so it was a little dated. Maybe there was something wrong with it now.

"Yui, I think something's wrong with my phone, I'll see you when I get back home."

Without another thought, he ended the call and slid the phone back into his pocket.

The Dicey Cafe door opened once again, welcoming Kazuto back inside. Klein and Agil were standing exactly where they were before, sharing a story among themselves. No doubt about an adventure they all had in Aincrad, probably the one about Klein helping Agil pick out a spot to place his shop on Floor 55. As soon as the door closed, however, they both set their eyes on Kazuto.

"Who was that Kirito?" Klein, always the brown nose, asked.

"Ah, it was Yui."

Kazuto said it so casually, he was taken off guard when both of his friends could only stare at him with a genuinely curious look.

"You know her, right?" Kazuto asked, this time a little concerned.

Though this only made them even more confused, Agil managed to reply.

"No, who is she? Another player?"

It took Kazuto until then to remember that him and Asuna never told anybody about the events where Yui was involved, not because they didn't want to, but because the game ended a week after it happened. Also, the only time they met up with everybody again was just hours before a boss raid; it was hardly the time to be catching up.

"We, uh, never managed to tell you guys, but Asuna and I sort of 'adopted' her while we were away from the front lines."

Kazuto explanation was hesistant, and it didn't seem to click in his friends' heads yet. He lightly cleared his throat, and took a seat in the stool next to Klein.

"One day while we were out on a walk in the forest on Floor 22, we found this girl unconscious in the forest. We took her back to our house where she didn't wake up until the next morning."

Given everything that had happened, both involving Yui and Asuna, this topic was far from pleasant to talk about, but Kazuto didn't have choice, especially since knowing Klein, he wouldn't leave him alone until he knew it all.

"She had no memory of where she was or what she was doing, not even of her family. All she knew was that her name was Yui. We told her our names, but she couldn't pronounce them correctly, somehow she just started saying Mommy and Daddy and we agreed to that." There was a pause in his story for a moment. "We did enjoy having her around, our home felt more complete with Yui with us. I guess we were still living off of the marriage high, but we really did care about her; but we knew she had a real family, and that we had to find them."

He took a drink from the glass that had been sitting there since Agil poured it earlier, and gathered his thoughts as best he could.

"Most of the children players never really left the Town of Beginnings because it was too dangerous for them, so it was possible that Yui's family was there. We knew it was Army territory, so we made sure we were equipped before heading down." Kazuto laughed, remembering the look of terror on that member of the Army's face when Asuna pushed him back 15 meters with her rapier.

"We hadn't been there since the first day, memories came back as if they only happened yesterday."

That was a day that every SAO player would remember, no matter their thoughts on it. It was that one day when it stopped being just another game.

Kazuto took another swill from the glass, nearly emptying it this time, realizing that it was a much better idea to just skip to the ending summary.

"Long story short, Asuna and I later found out that Yui was an AI designed for the game; and when the game's main system tried to delete her, I managed to turn her programming into a game object using a console block in a dungeon underneath Black Iron Palace. Yesterday, I found that program sitting in my NerveGear's internal memory, I've been talking with her ever since."

After that was said and done, he finally noticed the beads of sweat rolling down his neck. He glanced between Agil and Klein's faces, and both of them were completely bewildered. Unsure of which reason, Kazuto continued to shift his glance from face to face until Agil finally asked a question for some more clarification.

"So, Yui was an AI? What was her purpose in the game?"

"She was a mental care program. Emphasis on the was. On launch day the Cardinal System locked her out; she was forced to watch as players' mental state deteriorated."

"Wait, you're telling me-"

"Yeah, evidently," Kazuto said, abruptly stopping Klein, "Kayaba never intended for us to lose our minds the way many of us did, or so I'm led to believe. If there was anything worse than him in the game, it was Cardinal, I will believe that. It was built to run completely independently, no need for human interference."

Klein got up from his stool, walked up to Kazuto, and placed his hand on his shoulder. His usual stupid smile graced his face as he then nudged Kazuto's shoulder.

"Well I'm glad she's still okay, Kirito. I find it odd someone younger than me has a kid though. Agil, how about you?"

Agil simply nodded with a own smile, Klein continued.

"And remember pal, we're here for you as well."

"Wha-"

Kazuto had an idea of what Klein meant by that, but it felt incredibly unorthodox at the current moment.

"Yeah, nevermind. It's just that if there's ever anything you want to talk about, you've got us here."

The whole conversation felt like it had been derailed for the twelfth time in a single hour, and before he knew it, it was done again."

"Hey Agil! Remember when Kirito took us to that horrible noodle shop in Algade?"

"Hey! It wasn't that bad! I used to eat there all the time!"

Kazuto butted in, suddenly losing track of what he was thinking before.

"Yeah, I still don't know why you liked that place so much." Klein retored.

The knew couple of hours flew by; the three of them didn't even finish talking until they noticed that sun was well on the horizon, with the sky in that middle stage between orange and black. The shop had also started to welcome more guests through its doorway, making it harder for Agil to hold conversation. Eventually, when Agil became too busy, both Klein and Kazuto said their goodbyes and left the cafe.

The two of them walked down the now empty merchant street. A street that only a couple hours ago was bustling with people. As they wandered their way down, Kazuto to the bus stop, Klein to his car, a feeling of nostalgia took them.

"Taito feels like a modern Town of Beginnings at night, doesn't it?" Klein pointed out, "There's not many people out right now, but just enough is going on to let you know they're here."

Such an insightful observation wasn't uncommon for the self-proclaimed samurai. He had to tendency to act foolish most times, but he could easily switch back to a serious mood when he needed to. Perhaps this is why Klein and Kazuto were practically best friends in Aincrad. There was no doubt that Kazuto was appreciative for all the times that Klein was there to keep him in line, though he'd never admit it directly. They both certainly had an odd friendship.

"Hey, Klein."

"Mm, what'd you need?"

Kazuto fixed his gaze ahead of him, showing constraint in his footsteps before continuing.

"Earlier, when you said you were always there for me, did you mean-"

"Of course I did. I was there, remember? It has to be difficult. That's why I said what I said."

Klein seemed to think to himself before saying anything else. Almost as if it were appropriate for him to add anything to that. Suddenly he stopped and placed his hand on Kazuto's shoulder, bringing him to a halt as well.

"I still can't forget how you were then. You, Christmas? We knew all about it, and we tried to help you, but we couldn't. You were hurting man, all those months after it happened."

The hand on Kazuto's shoulder tightened it's grip, and at the same time, Klein's face was looking down towards the ground.

"It's only been a week Kirito, and I know you're not okay right now, as much as your hiding it. It's cheesy, and cliché, I know, but I'm worried about you man. Besides, we both made a promise to keep you safe. Even now, I don't plan to go back on that!"

Every single one of Klein's words vibrated through Kazuto. He remembered everything, and even after all this time, Klein was still persistent as he ever was. Of course, all of that could've been said just as pleasantries, but that was next to impossible between those two. Ever since learning about his true family history, he felt like a loner, like he never fit in with anybody. Yet here was this red-haired goof that would never go away, no matter how hard he tried.

"... You're way too soft for a samurai." Kazuto replied, unable to stop himself from letting out a small chuckle.

"Heh." Klein scoffed, immediately followed by a grin, "Says the stone cold solo player who ran off to start a family right when the good part started."

Both of them continued walking and made it to the bus stop. Klein would have to walk another block to get to his car, but at least traffic wasn't as bad this time of night. There wasn't much else said between them except for a casual goodbye as they parted, leaving with Kazuto sitting on the bus stop bench by himself.

Fifteen minutes passed before a large passenger bus pulled up to the stop, where Kazuto was still the only one there. The bus had several people already on it, all of them sitting by themselves in their own remote location on the bus, either dozed off or reading something. Finding a nice spot in the back seats, Kazuto eased himself into the near-vintage cushioning of the early 2010s model bus, prompty flipping his jacket's hood over his head as he leaned back in the seat. Not even a few minutes passed before he started to doze off himself.

* * *

The moon was well into the sky when Kazuto walked into the house. By now, Suguha would be up in her room, either doing homework, reading, or browing the net. On the rare occasion she was home, Midori would be in the living room watching television, or in the kitchen preparing or eating a snack. Midori was still at work, however, and the bottom floor of the house was perfectly quiet, with only a few lights letting him know that somebody was home.

He opened the fridge and noticed a couple small containers with a note taped between them. It was written in Suguha's handwriting and noted that inside these containers was his dinner. It wasn't much, but it the smaller of the two containers had a serving's size of curry, which was more than enough to eat if he mixed it with the rice that was inevitably in the other container. Kazuto emptied their contents onto a plate and placed it in the microwave for a minute. Afterward, he silently ate the leftovers at the kitchen table, calmly recalling the day's events.

He finished rinsing the containers and plate in the sink, then slowly and carefully made his way up the stairs. He passed by Suguha's room and gently pressed his ear to the door. With no noise coming from her room, she was either reading of listening to music right now. When he stepped into his room, he proceeded to plop down on his bed, and let out a huge sigh.

_It's been a long day. I'm actually glad it's over._

Immediately after thinking that to himself, he looked over at the beaten up helmet sitting on his desk, plugged into the power outlet on the wall. If there was one more thing he had to do today, it was talk to Yui about the day. On top of that, she told him earlier she finished with the World Seed, so it was possible he might be able to upload it before he went to bed.

He reached over a strapped the NerveGear on his head, before laying back flat in his bed. A bit of excitement gave him an extra amount of energy as he quickly adjusted his position and shouted out he command prompt to began the full dive.

"Link start!"

The world around him became engulfed in a brilliant white light, a contrast to the dimly lit room he was originally in. His SAO avatar once again materialized, but this time not in the same dull grey cell as before. This time, the cell took the shape of the inside of a log cabin in the forest, and an oddly familiar one at that. Kazuto didn't realize where he was until he instinctively sat on a rocker chair by a fireplace.

"This is-!"

"Daddy help!"

* * *

_A/K: Wow, so it's been a month. Uh. Wow. Sorry about that, everyone. Life's a little busy professionally right now, but I'll save you the specifics. In other notes, I spent an hour just studying Tokyo for this one, it'd irritate me if I got the geography for this one wrong. By the way, remember when I said that GGO would start in a couple of chapters? Yeah, that didn't happen, maybe next chapter. (Think of it this way, if there's 5-6 chapters of filler and exposition, imagine the rest of the story.) Anyway, I'll stop the notes here. See you guys next round! _

_PS: No, I'm not shipping KleinxKirito. My ship's actually Kirisuna, which, uh... yeah._

_PSS: I should clarify, Kirisuna is my overall SAO ship. 'Twas a joke, my friends. Because I killed her, you know? Heheh? Yeah, I know I'm not funny._


End file.
